Fascinating stuff:Carl Størmer points us to this amazing map of the United States. Each state’s economic output is analogized to another country’s GDP.

click for larger chart:

Notable omissions: U.K., Japan, Germany, China, Russia, Italy.

I cannot vouch for the precision of this, but by eyeball, it looks about right.

Carl adds:

“When seeing Norway’s GDP in the context of this map, one realizes why Norway is one of the last countries U.S. companies consider when expanding to Europe.

My two cents (not in the blog): In addition to small GDP, little competition has enabled local players to build monopolies or duopolies in many industries. Add high state ownership to this mix, and you understand why Norwegian consumers are unused to good service and competitive prices. Other than that, Norway is a great country.”

Please use the comments to demonstrate your own ignorance, unfamiliarity with empirical data and lack of respect for scientific knowledge. Be sure to create straw men and argue against things I have neither said nor implied. If you could repeat previously discredited memes or steer the conversation into irrelevant, off topic discussions, it would be appreciated. Lastly, kindly forgo all civility in your discourse . . . you are, after all, anonymous.

Toiling through the low wage, high violence Bush years, I often regret that my ancestors ever migrated here. Norwegian I would rather (still) be. If you think I’m foolish, check the public health stats.

Unless I am very much mistaken, the “snark” about Norway comes from the source of the chart, who is Norwegian. Presumably he knows what he is talking about.

What I find remarkable is that the seventh most populous country in the world (Bangladesh) has an economy the size of the 49th most populous state (Vermont.) The 13th most populous country in the world (Vietnam) has an economy the size of the smallest state by landmass (Rhode Island).

CA is the 8th-largest economy in the world, roughly — it is slightly smaller than France. UK, Japan, China, Italy, and Germany are ommitted because their economies are all larger than any individual U.S. states.

Well, the comparisons are not that solid. For instance, TX is $200 B smaller than Canada. Ecuador is 50% larger than North Dakota. Based on 2005 GSP data from the BEA and 2005 GDP data from the IMF, this is a more accurate comparison, in $ US billions:

Working through low wage, the high years of Bush of the violence, moan often that my ancestors emigrated always here. The Norwegian who I (still) is something. If you think that I am absurd, I verify stats of the public health.

And what’s this about U.S companys not expanding to Norway? Well, I suppose Google, Sun, IBM, Microsoft and their kind don’t really count, because, uhm, Norway are one of the only countrys in Europe that those companys has anything more than a sales/PR functions. wtf?

Naturally one has to be amused by such stats games but realise that GDP vs populaton says NADA about real distribution, i.e. a theoretical country could have all income in the hands of an oligarchy and most of the people could be starving or it could be distributed in a more equitable manner and thus, overall would be healthier and gthus richer which naturally brings me to Norway, a country which was rated by the U.N. as having by far the best environment to live in with the best health, chance to live longer, get better educated , live in better housing and on and on..Canada was a near miss in that stat by the way which is where I live. Norway has put aside something extraordinary like 650 billion dollars for an investment fund from their oil and gas revenues so that when they run out, Norway will be able to maintain the good fortune of their local non-renewable resource. Corporations move to where the tax structure is low, employee costs are insignificant and thus, profits are high. They do not move to good and healthy societies if they can find an improverished place to plant their fat asses. Norway is not such a place and thus, have to work harder at providing real reasons to go ther and their educated population is one of the reasons that high tech is to be found there. This is also true for Canada and in this country they cannot find sufficient workers who are skilled to take the jobs that are going unfilled.A healthy universally supplied medicare system, inexepensive education, good housing and so forth in Canada is not reflected in seeing our GDP compared to a Texas where there are incredibly rich and incredibly poor folks living within the state. One has to look for real poverty in Canada which though it is present reflects a tiny proportion of the overall population and is always being addressed rather than hidden from view. Norway as I understand it, has NONE. Good for them and they do deserve to be number one in terms of quality of life for that reason.

Naturally one has to be amused by such stats games but realise that GDP vs populaton says NADA about real distribution, i.e. a theoretical country could have all income in the hands of an oligarchy and most of the people could be starving or it could be distributed in a more equitable manner and thus, overall would be healthier and gthus richer which naturally brings me to Norway, a country which was rated by the U.N. as having by far the best environment to live in with the best health, chance to live longer, get better educated , live in better housing and on and on..Canada was a near miss in that stat by the way which is where I live. Norway has put aside something extraordinary like 650 billion dollars for an investment fund from their oil and gas revenues so that when they run out, Norway will be able to maintain the good fortune of their local non-renewable resource. Corporations move to where the tax structure is low, employee costs are insignificant and thus, profits are high. They do not move to good and healthy societies if they can find an improverished place to plant their fat asses. Norway is not such a place and thus, have to work harder at providing real reasons to go ther and their educated population is one of the reasons that high tech is to be found there. This is also true for Canada and in this country they cannot find sufficient workers who are skilled to take the jobs that are going unfilled.A healthy universally supplied medicare system, inexepensive education, good housing and so forth in Canada is not reflected in seeing our GDP compared to a Texas where there are incredibly rich and incredibly poor folks living within the state. One has to look for real poverty in Canada which though it is present reflects a tiny proportion of the overall population and is always being addressed rather than hidden from view. Norway as I understand it, has NONE. Good for them and they do deserve to be number one in terms of quality of life for that reason.

One wonders what PPP estimate is used for Norway, as it is one of the most expensive countries in the world to live in. I suspect the “true” real income per capita in Norway is substantially lower than in the US. Last year UBS published a survey suggesting that Oslo was the most expensive city in the world based on the price of a basket of 122 goods and services.

The Human Development Index was made by socialists to make socialist economies look better. Particularly those with socialized medicine. If someone who didn’t believe in socialism made a human freedom index (I know people have made similar things, but mostly they are also made by socialists) and arbitrarily valued the freedom to do what you like without being forced to provide for the lazy and listless you could just as easily put the U.S. back at the top. I have spent a few months in Norway and if you adjust for purchasing power the Norwegian per capita income doesn’t go very far at all. More than $20 per pound for beef (or reindeer), and a small hand basket of groceries often costs $60. And that is even with their ridiculous windfall of oil wealth propping up their welfare state.

And why do people jump on Norway? Because for a bunch of people who got lucky with oil, they sure talk like they pulled themselves up with their bootstraps and if only the rest of the world would do like they do we could have the same results.

Carl Størmer posted a map earlier today comparing each US state’s economic output with the GDP of other countries. I’m not sure how accurate Størmer’s map is — the map omits quite a few major countries — but it is

For me this shows benefits of linguistic/cultural diversity and national identity. All countries mapped over U.S. have their own significant feel, but most of the states beneath them are quite bland in comparison. My Finland, for example is on Colorado. What’s in Colorado? They have as much people and GDP, but what else? Why they exist? Is the GDP used to build better Colorado for future? What kind of people are Coloradoans? Do they have history, a story of their people? Probably they do, but it is kind of diminished under the whole U.S. story, and in that story only rare Coloradoan can feel herself significant.

Having heard the full Barbara Boxer quote I think the question of whether she was attacking Condi Rice for being unmarried and childless is a red herring to distract from criticism of the war, but the fact that it has blown up the way it has is an indi…

I pretty agree about that GDP/capita would have been a better ratio (Belgium between Dominican Rep, Vietnam and Bangladesh is a bit nonsense).
I have been doing a pretty similar work (but more on a cross-cultural level (blog in my profile)).

Iranians claim to have shot an American drone. No, not that drone. [Fars News] Walnuts is being challenged for official John McCain diminutive of 07. [Blondesense] Chris Matthews shows how its done. [Eschaton] Richard ̶…

Oz actually has a much smaller population than California. Canada is a bit smaller than Cal.

Oz may look big and empty, but the habitable part of the country isn’t nearly that big. Likewise Canada.

The Human Development Index was made by socialists to make socialist economies look better. Particularly those with socialized medicine.

The reason socialized medicine “looks” better is because it is better, as the residents of countries that have it know perfectly well. What amazes me is that anyone in the US, which has by far the most expensive health care system in the world, with results near the bottom of the developed world, could believe otherwise. Well they thought Saddam was behind 9/11 too.

Oh by the way, really the only countries left with socialist economies are North Korea and Cuba, and I don’t think they look too good in the SDI. But I guess you’re using Rush Limbaugh’s definition of “socialist”, which appears to include places like Switzerland.

The problem with the Human Development Index is that it includes non-objective factors which means the appraisers get to say what they like or don’t like. It thus reflects their personal political views. Now some one says socialist medicine is better. Those of us who have lived in socialsed systems might disagree. US health care costs more becaouse on average Americans buy a lot more health care. Socialist health care costs less per person because they ration it and simply refuse services which are almost routine in the US. That is if you compare the amount spent on health care per person.

Americans also spend more on entertainment than most other nations. That is not called an entertainement crisis because they do. It is immediately understood that this is because they get a lot more entertainment. Ditto for cars. Americans spend a hell of a lot more per person on cars than do Nigerians. That doesn’t mean the Nigerians are better off. Only when it comes to health do people suddenly invent this standard that spending less is more.

I cant vouch for the accuracy of this, but it it is pretty fascinating. Ive always heard that if taken by itself California would be like the 5th or 6th biggest economy in the world. This map makes comparisons with all US states. The …

Countries like Greece have a large black economy. Its GDP does not include the estimated this black ‘Hidden economy. It is estimated that another 50 % of its GDP makes up its total economy. So $225 + $112.5 =$337.5BN! and with a population of around 10 million GDP per Capita brings it to $33,700 which would put Greece in the top 10 richest Nations on earth!

Countries like Greece have a large black economy. Its GDP does not include the estimated black ‘Hidden’ economy. It is estimated that another 50% of its GDP makes up its total economy. So $225 + $112.5 =$337.5BN! and with a population of around 10 million GDP per Capita brings it to $33,700 which would put Greece in the top 10 richest Nations on earth!

The Term GDP is only one measurement of several important economic indicators to watch.
PPP measurements are more accurate and when one uses PPP GDP in the equation, the U.S. econony makes up less then 20% of World Economic Totals. IN truth the European Union has the World’s largest economy and China is coming fast but they should because with over one billon people, their PPP per capita incomes are only $5,000 per head and their gini-index is rising with a huge rich-poor gap.
The U.S. has huge Current Account deficits, Government Deficits and consumer debts.
For each new dollar of economic Growth the U.S. economy is adding 6 dollars of new debt which means we are selling our assets to Europe and Asia to finance ourselves. We have become a debtor nation and are taking on the Characteristics of a Colony.
Our average life expectency(U.S.) is ranked 48th in the World and our Healthcare system is 37th for example.
The country is vastly overinflated and that is why we are selling our wealth off to foreign investors.
Does not look good for the next generation at all!
We have lost most of our Manufacturing base which made us a wealthy country and The European Union with over 34 million manufacturing jobs and the Chinese(also a very large manufacturing power for low technology goods)are becoming richer compared to the U.S. which totals 14 million Manufacturing jobs, obviously the U.S. is in no economic situation to dominate anything!
There is many different ways to judge an economy!

Carl Størmershighlights a fascinating map of the United States which compares each state to its comparably sized country, asmeasured by GDP (thanks to The Big Picture, via Pienso, for the link): My first reaction is, as I scan this map,…

I would like to emphasize that the European Union has the greatest economic out put in the world. Yes, the European Union and not the United States. Other than that just look at what is going on in the world and you will see that the US is loosing ground in many aspects. The USD is loosing ground to the EUR. As Shoey pointed out very wisely there are way more manufacuring jobs in Europe and China.

People always say that China is a great polluter but just look at the US. This country did not sign the Qioto treaty, the US is actually the largest polluter in the world. On the other hand the Eropean Union is trying to apply renewable enegy sources in its economy. For example Sweden is on the best way to do away with its oil needs by 2020.

Another thing, the US seems to have an immense burden on its economy: its army. And this army proves to be absolutely useless in conflicts like Iraq.

Bottom line is, there is no reason to talk about American superioriy whatever, because no such thing exists. The US is most certainly a major player in the world economy but nothing more.

Oh, and one more thing. As I remember the US was a beloved and very sympathetic country in the 70s and 80s. It was the leader of the free world and so on… Now it is not an exagerration if I say that the majority of the worlds population simply hate the United States or at least considers it a major global threat. The US is kind of bullying around in the world, but you might remember from scool, those bullies always got what they deserved at the end of the day. And I dont mean that they got beaten up whatever, they simply were not admitted to university, if you see my point… :)

I would like to say that even if these total lies about our “superiority” were true this doesn’t make us any better or excuse us from the atrocities we commit (yes I am from the US and ashamed).

Again, if you want to sing “America, Fuck Yeah” please do so but don’t try to convince thinking people that there are rational and not purely emotional reasons for you wanting to do so. The US leads in a single thing right now and that is military might.

What would be really interesting is average info compared with pridce of some basket of products and services that constitute monthly expenses. Than we would see who cas save the most money. So we would see the perfect country to emigrate to for a couple of years and then come back home with savings.

I’m sorry, it was to be something like that:
What would be really interesting is information about average salary compared to a price of some basket of products and services that constitute monthly expenses. Than we would see who can save the most money. So we would see the perfect country to emigrate to for a couple of years and then come back home with savings.

Here’s a map of the USA where the states have been labelled with the names of countries with comparable GDPs — California is the same size as France; Texas, Canada; New York, Brazil, and so on. Link (Thanks, Kevin!) Update:Barry points to the origina…

Update July 2007: In PPP terms, (which is what really matters, unless you want to believe India’s economy has been expanding at 30% a year last few years because of USD falling like a rock against Rs), China+India is now bigger than the US economy, India just crossed Japan to become the third-biggest economy, screaming by at 9.4% growth, and China is set to cross to become the biggest world economy in 2 years blazing by at 11% growth. So you see, while these two giants and late boomers cross the little USA by, they would look back and see its economy shrink in size at the rate of 6-7% a year compared to their economies. To add insult to the injury of the proud nationalists in US, the Chinese and Indians might soon be putting US on their map (just like the one posted in this article). And then we will see a still-proud-and-trying to be arrogant american pointing out that their per capita income is still a bit higher than either India or China’s….

Some good things will come out of this tectonic change- India and China will once again become the leading economies of the World- a position they held for all but the last couple of centuries- and it will be put the last vestiges of western colonial mentality in the right place- politically. This will also help the rest of economically recovering world a lot.
Iraq would be remembered as the last war USA was able to start unilaterally outside their backyard. 25 years from now when this transition would be substantially over, a lot more people in this country will be a lot less arrogant- as the balance returns.

Source of sizes of the economy mentioned: none other than CIA World Factbook. Just google for it and read.

This is quite an education. Click for a larger image.
Although the economies of countries like China and India are growing at an incredible rate, the US remains the nation with the highest GDP in the world – and by far: US GDP is …

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About Barry Ritholtz

Ritholtz has been observing capital markets with a critical eye for 20 years. With a background in math & sciences and a law school degree, he is not your typical Wall St. persona. He left Law for Finance, working as a trader, researcher and strategist before graduating to asset managementRead More...

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